Saturday, September 5, 2026
By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on October 22, 2024
Twenty-one months after Nags Head placed a moratorium on multi-family permits, effectively halting multi-family housing construction within its borders, the Town’s Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to accept a revised ordinance at its Oct. 2 meeting.
Although there are a number of changes to the previous multi-family housing ordinance, the most significant revision is the deed restriction requiring a long-term lease of “ninety (90) consecutive calendar days or more,” according to the language of the ordinance.
The deed restriction is intended to create housing for the local workforce. When apartments built under the provisions of the ordinance are available, they will be rented at market value and are not considered affordable housing as defined by federal law.
There are other revised provisions in the ordinance as well. The number of large multi-family projects that can be built in the town has been capped at three. Small developments, six units or less, may be approved administratively instead of going through a public hearing process. Small multi-family developments are defined as having three to six units; large developments are greater than six to a maximum of 75 units and will require a public hearing and approval by the Board of Commissioners.
In addition, the ordinance specifically states that an apartment must be “occupied by at least one qualified person.” The ordinance defines a qualified person as someone “working/employed in Dare County, NC.”
On Jan. 2, 2023, confronted by resident concerns over a proposed 54-unit complex across from Jockey’s Ridge State Park by Woda Cooper, then Dare County’s affordable housing partner, the Nags Head Commissioners voted to halt new multi-family permits until a revised ordinance addressing those concerns was in place. Those concerns included where projects were being located, the size of the projects and the need to restrict short-term rentals and create workforce housing.
The new ordinance is the result of a collaborative effort that included public hearings and workshops and the formation of a working group committee with the Outer Banks Association of Realtors (OBAR), stakeholders and town representatives.
“What they’ve come up with is a pretty good example of collaboration involving stakeholders and property owners and the advisory committee of the planning board,” said Donna Creef, OBAR Government Affairs Director.
When the town’s commissioners voted on a moratorium on new multi-family developments, Mayor Ben Cahoon felt the procedure of creating a new ordinance would be fairly straightforward.
“Typically we would give an assignment to the planning board, they would make a recommendation, we might tweak it, and then we would adopt it,” he said.
That was not, however, how the process eventually played out.
“It was a little bit accidental…the fact that we had a longer process,” he said. “We got some folks involved from the building and development community…and members of the planning board, members of the board of commissioners…And then we had a public hearing…but there was so much interest that we had the additional public meeting at the middle of the month [in September].”
For Cahoon, the end result is something that could be a model for the future. “If you designed a process, that’s pretty good process, especially the degree of public engagement that we got ahead of adopting the ordinance. At the end, it made it an easy ordinance to vote for,” he said.
Cahoon’s view of public engagement is shared by Nags Head Commissioner Megan Lambert, who saw the public workshops and hearings as a way to explain what was in the ordinances.
“I didn’t sense that people didn’t support it, I sensed, they wanted to understand it better,” she said. “At the end of that process, when they did vote on the rezoning, you heard people get up and say, ‘I really appreciate doing this. We feel like we’ve been heard.’”
As other Dare County towns and the county grapple with creating workforce housing, Creef, who chairs the Dare County Housing Task Force, sees the process that emerged from Nags Head as a “blueprint…it’s an example of what other municipalities might want to consider…it’s a great attempt at having some diverse options out there.”
This story has been updated o October 24.
Comments
Dylan
Does this new ordinance prohibit sub-leasing?If not, then it is fatally flawed. I lease for 90 days plus, then sub-lease to tourists, radicals, whoever for however long.
Lisa
The ninety day lease is okay-why not 6 months. We are looking for long term housing. Any sublease should be banned. It is meant to help local workforce, so shouldn’t having to show employment here be a mandate. People want this to work, but there is always someone out there that will do something to try to work tourist rentals in it. That has to be banned 100%.
Jay
If these units are to rent at market rate. I wonder if the market rate will be affordable as workforce housing. Kip was there any mention of what the target market rate rent might be?
anyone from anywhere
This is not affordable local workforce housing. This is market rate “anyone from anywhere” housing. Many of these apartments will be snapped up by non-locals who want to move here to retire but can’t afford to buy. Also by non-local families (maybe shared with extended families and friends) who want a place to stay at the beach for vacations and long weekend getaways. Much cheaper that renting an ABB or VRBO for just a week or two in the summer.
These market rate “anyone from anywhere” apartments will just create more demand for local services and make our local worker housing problems even worse. The only real solution is true workforce housing like the teacher and municipal employee housing that is restricted to local workers only, and other true workforce housing that is provided by employers for their employees only.
Part Time OBX'r
Not specific enough – this will get abused and turn into out of town vacation rentals. The whole point of the moratorium was to write it in a way to ensure local workforce/teacher/police/EMS ONLY. Based on the very little info provided in this write up, seems very easy to abuse and sublease!
A Reader
I didn’t have any trouble finding the revision document on the Town’s website. Here’s the link in case someone wants to read it.
http://www.nagsheadnc.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3023
Currituck
Owners of property in Nags Head have less and less control of what they can do with it.
They believe this will increase work housing…it will not. The hand wringing will continue.
The shortage of housing is because of the extreme limitation of land, for development, on the beach. There is no fix for that.
Currituck.
NH Resident
The Town of Nags Head is like a Communist HOA.
Denise
Seriously folks, I chose a career as a Licensed Professional and worked most of my life to earn the ability to make this Island my home. When did delivering pizza become a career choice that affords the perks of hard work, determination & dedication? The solution is simply over the bridge to the mainland. If you want to live near the Ocean make the choices in life that afford you that luxury.
Denise
Spot on NH Resident! HOA’s have zero purpose other than to feed the power monster. They provide nothing that you are not capable of providing for yourself, yet they convince people that they are helpless without them. Politicians are no different. Power without oversight is a slippery slope.
Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice
Just for the record, Denise, NH Resident’s reference to an HOA was not meant to be literal. Nags Head is a municipality, not an HOA.
Denise
Thanks for your input Mark, Communist is hardly a benign description, Mine however, was meant to be literal based on personal experience with a local HOA. I do appreciate your response.
A Reader
if you don’t like living under the authority of an HOA, maybe should make better choices in life and not subject yourself to those injustices. The solution is simply to make the choice in life to buy a property on a different island that isn’t under an HOA. I mean after all, you’re a licensed professional!
bchgrl
Oooh!! A whole island town where the only residents are entitled licensed professionals! Sounds like a WASPY dream. I’d rather live among all types of people — recent high school and college graduates learning a trade or just starting out in their career, artists, young families, teachers and EMTs who don’t have to commute an hour to get to work, police officers, COA students, nurses, retirees, tradespeople, licensed professionals — even pizza delivery people! A town needs a variety of residents for it to thrive, not stagnate.
OBX Resident
Wow “A Reader” sort of harsh and really had no place being posted. Spoken like a controlling HOA board member.
Denise
Heck of a name you’ve got there ‘A Reader’. At least I was ‘professional’ enough to identify myself. Something to hide? FYI, I did not start this ball rolling. Do your research on HOA’s whose intent was to segregate neighborhoods. They have power without oversight by any outside entity. Recipe for disaster. Do your homework.